By now you have probably received your postcard
from the Distance Learning Office and that means you are registered
in our Ways of Knowing coordinated studies online course.. Please email bothTom
Kerns and Diane Hostetler and
let us know you are enrolled and participating.

Downloading your Courseware:Our courseware for this
quarter is going to be FirstClass To download this software
to your desktop(which you must do to access the rest of the course),
go to http://fc.northseattle.edu Once there, you will be given the
choice of downloading the FirstClass program to your computer or to
log in to the web version of FirstClass. We strongly recommend the
download which is small, wasy and fast and provides more options and
an easier desktop view than the web interface. If you are trying to
log on to our class from a remote location other than your own computer,
you might then choose the web version. But if at all possible, we urge
you to use the downloaded version. The download and installation is
very easy; but you mustt follow all of the steps indicated on the page,
especially the last step which insures that the server address in the
setup of your program is fc.northseattle.edu. We have provided a short
powerpoint for you if you need more visual explanations of how to download
and use FirstClass. to access the instructions, click on powerpoint.
To view this presentation, you will need to have Acrobat Reader on
your computer which you may download here. .The
program is free. Be sure to log in with your first initial and last
name and the password provided.If you have technical problems please
call the Distance Learning Office and ask for Carol
Howe or Joanne Fall.

To
Log on to the FirstClass Site: Click
on the [Setup] button and type your User ID(your
first initial and last name in lower case) and Password(the
last six digits of your student ID) in the spaces provided.
You must use the following for your USER ID and PASSWORD: Your
user ID will be your first and last name with no space. Your initial
password is [changeme]. Click on [login] Once you are on the site
you can and should change your password to one that you can remember.Look
on the top menus for [change password] and follow the instructions. Please
remember that we will not know your password and will not be able
to give it to you if you forget it. Please write it down.

You'll need to learn how to use the Embanet
FirstClass software that you've downloaded. If you go to your embanet
desktop you’ll see that they have a help folder, and a tutorial somewhere
inside it. You should work carefully through that tutorial so that
you are comfortable doing all the necessary functions outlined there.
If (or when) you need telephone help, a) you can call embanet support
any time of day or night at (416)
494-6622 X1. (I wish it was an 800
number), b) or you can email them at support@embanet.com, c) or you
can set up a live chat with them by clicking on Customer Support when
you pull down "Who's Online" from one of the menus.

To
Order Your Books:Some
of our books are available online and you will be able to access
those texts via the internet. These have been marked in the Books
section of the Syllabus and on the Readings Link of this site.
You will find the passwords necessary for some of these readings
on the FirstClass site.Those books which need to be bought are
available through theNSCC bookstore which is managed by Barnes
and Noble on campus. You may call them for information on how to
order them if you are unable to get to campus. They can be reached
at 206-527-3637 . their hours can be found on the North Seattle
site:Bookstore

If you do not have a computer,
there are open computer labs on campus:

OPEN
COMPUTER LABS There are two open computer labs available
to all North students.The labs are located in the Instructional
Building (IB) room 3303 (this lab has both PC's and Macs) and in
the High Tech Learning Center (HT) room 1845B (all PC's). North's
open computer labs have the widest variety of software on the campus
and are open for walk-in use. The hours vary each quarter so please
check either thecampus
home page (http://www.gonorth.org/services/support/)
or the doors outside the labs for specific lab hours. Policies
and procedures for the labs are posted in the labs and the lab
staff will be happy to assist you.

. You may want to print out this message
if it isn't comfortable to read on your screen. In fact, we find that
if something is more than one screen long it is sometimes easier to
just print it out and read it away from the computer. You may also
want to do this for many of the mini-lectures you'll be reading this
quarter. You may also want to do it for the class schedule (though
we'll be adding to it each week), just so you have a printed version
of when things are due.

Our First Assignment:You'll need
to write a short biography about yourself, maybe a page or so long,
or as long as you like. You'll post this in our classroom in the folder
titled "WOK-bios." Simplest way to do this is to first open
up that Bio folder. Under the messages menu, click on "new message." Write
your bio however you like. If you can put a photo of yourself in your
biography, that would be great. (In fact, maybe what we'll do here
is just give 739 extra credit points to every person who puts a photo
in their biography sometime in the first week or two of the course.)
The photos help make our classroom community a bit more personable,
and the more personable the better in these online environments. Send
your message to the class. By clicking send, it will place your message
(bio) in the Bio folder. Please read the biographies of all of the
class members.Please have your biography information
posted before Wednesdy, October 1st.